Man die een handkar trekt 1869 - 1941

Johannes Abraham Mondt made this watercolour of a man pulling a cart. It must have come together through layering, a bit of trial and error, as the man seems to emerge from the paper. I'm trying to imagine what Mondt was thinking about when he made this. Did he consider the weight of the cart or the colour of the man's shirt? I can't help but wonder about the man pulling the cart and the fact that it looks heavy. The weight seems to drag the wheel into a darker space and gives the man a slightly hunched posture. You know, a lot of art is like this. It's about weight, about how we carry it, and how we, as artists, can make something beautiful out of that struggle. The artist, like the man pulling his cart, adds something to the world as he goes.